The Americas

Music and politics in Haiti

A sanitised Carnival

IF ANYONE understands the power of music to challenge authority, it is the president formerly known as Sweet Micky. He was a rebellious singer of kompa, a genre known better as an excuse for dirty dancing— the Haitian manoeuvre is called plogè—than for its capacity for political critique. Sweet Micky somehow managed nonetheless, wringing a sort of reactionary nihilism from his performances. Throughout the 1990s, he especially liked to play at parties held by paramilitary groups and skewer the democratic government.

But now that Sweet Micky is President Michel Martelly (pictured), the tables have turned, with his government disallowing three of Haiti’s most popular bands from participating in this year’s Carnival. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that their songs accused his government for hypocrisy and corruption. Or not. “It’s a party that's being organized; it’s not a protest,” Mr Martelly explained on Haitian radio on the eve of Carnival, according to the Miami Herald. “The carnival is not like it was a long time ago. Before it was do as you like, take to the streets.”

The government was hoping to generate the kind of ambience that might attract tourists. It reportedly spent nearly $5m on the event—nearly twice the reported figure from 2011—and exercised vigilant security. On February 13th the Association of Haitian Journalists issued a note accusing police officers of beating two journalists at Carnival, and an advisor to Mr Martelly of booting out a television news crew from an event.

Technically, the bands were not censored. A committee chose 15 groups to participate in Carnival, and the bands crying foul were simply not on the list. A press release from the prime minister’s office noted that the selection process “unfortunately means unavoidable disappointment for some groups each year.”

Among those disappointed was Brothers Posse, whose Carnival tune “Aloral” was the undisputed hit of the season. The song prods Mr Martelly for, among other things, his constant trips abroad. Its very funny video depicts a Martelly doppelganger (bald head, pink shirt and a tumbler of whisky) in his office, playing with a paper plane. “If you can’t land, make wings [or take off]!”, the lyrics instruct. Aloral itself means “orally,” and the chorus takes each platform of Mr Martelly’s government—education, energy, environment, employment and rule of law—and dismisses progress towards it as merely aloral, or just talk.

Then there was RAM, the Vodou-inspired rock band led by Richard Morse. Mr Morse was once close to the president—he visibly supported his campaign and worked in his government—but he resigned his post in December. RAM’s carnival tune is “Men Bwa w”—a phrase that literally means “Here’s your wood”, but according to Mr Morse has multiple connotations. It alludes to the carnival theme, which centered on reforestation (bwa comes from bois, the French word for forest), as well as to Vodou spirits of the forest. Bwa conveys less polite things, too. It is slang for a part of the male anatomy, for example, and also means “baton”, a stick used to beat people. “Like the ones used by certain governments to oppress people?” your correspondent asked. “But it can also be sending it back to the government,” Mr Morse responded. “‘Oh, you wanted wood? Well here, here’s yours. Oh yeah, you wanted some of this? Here. You wanted to talk about trees and woods, here!’” The lyrics also observe a nameless “they” who buy laws and people and forget promises.

Another popular band that didn’t participate was Boukman Eksperyans, a revered “roots” group that was an important motor of the democracy movement. At Carnival, its float was blocked from parading, for unspecified reasons. The title of its tune, another dig at the government for allegedly not keeping loudly made promises, translates to “Shut your mouth”. It has been many years since musicians in Haiti worried about having to shut their own.

Readers' comments

The Haitian President, Michel Martelly, is acting like a Japanese KAMIKASE, seems like he doesn't care GOING DOWN IN FLAMES, like a lot of them did.
This is a problematic dilema, as the war ship represents HAITIhttp://i.imgur.com/6oVCP.jpg

Why is Kompa an excuse for dirty dancing?Why do you have to talk nonsense about what you don't know?Do you call you're whatsoever hip hop dance where girls are naked and scrub their butts on men's dick?I don't think so!Then,I can't understand your point of view!When you're aware of what something really is,just keep it shut!

Who is that ignorant who wrote this article? Can he please tell me what a dirty dancing manner is ? Or maybe give me an example of a clean dancing manner? How do u dare judge a culture that u know nothing about?

I think the article is fair notwithstanding the comment about" Kompa being a genre for dirty dancing". Obviously the writer does not know or understand Haitian music culture. Kompa is no different form Salsa, Merengue..etc. Though some like Sweet Micky used to do lots of dirty dancing, one might say that was his own way of expressing himself (there's nothing wrong with that) but that was not what Kompa is about. It is very weird to watch the Martelly government using censorship to prevent certain musical bands from participating in this year's carnaval. One must shake one's head in disbelief!!!!

Although i have my problems with the article itself, I do command P.B, whose evidently out of his element, for writing it. It is difficult enough to write about Haiti contextually, let alone having to translate from Creole and French without losing that context. I wish the American Media would employ more Haiti natives to cover Haiti instead of wrestling with translations and cultural context. The bands' exclusion from the carnival procession was censorship, even when there is not an automatic band selection. Read this article and draw your own conclusion. http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2013/02/20/censoring-speech-in-haitis-most...
When the President openly admitted why he decided to exclude them. he may a life on Carnival float and now want to prevent others from earning or express themselves. The president went further to forbid carnival celebration in the capital, which constitutes an infringement on the right to assemble, speech and a number of other rights. I do agree that the article lacks research.